Uniontown honors lives, service of veterans

This Memorial Day, for the ninth time, Uniontown residents will gather for the annual Memorial Day Observance ceremony. During the program, which begins at 1:30 p.m. at Uniontown Park, four veterans – two deceased and two living – will be honored and their service will be recognized.

Honoring its veterans is more than a simple tradition for residents of Uniontown.

It’s a part of who they are.

This Memorial Day, for the ninth time, Uniontown residents will gather for the annual Memorial Day Observance ceremony. During the program, which begins at 1:30 p.m. at Uniontown Park, four veterans – two deceased and two living – will be honored and their service will be recognized.

Each of the four men have bricks at the veterans memorial that located in the park.

Violinist Angela Windham will open the program with music. She is the granddaughter of a World War II veteran and will play at the memorial where a brick is her grandfather’s name is placed.

The Honor Guard for the ceremony will be McKinley Detachment No. 277 Marine Corp League of Canton. Uniontown resident Robert S. Harris will lead the guard.

Following a short ceremony that recognizes the lives and accomplishments of this year’s honored veterans – David Wilson Mount, Ben Rochford, Thomas A. Harman and Robert L. Keener – Taps will be played and a wreath will be placed at the base of the memorial.

Refreshments will be served following the ceremony.

Honored this year are:

DAVID WILSON MOUNT

Union Army Civil War Pvt.

1863-1865

Mount, now deceased, was known for many years as Uncle Wilson to the relatives who admired him.

In August of 1865, he penned a 55-page letter detailing his military life. It was not the only letter that Mount would be remembered for. Six months before his death in 1922, he penned a two-page letter to a patient at Walter Reed Hospital. Eventually, those letters found their way to Mount’s neice, who was known to many simply as “Grandma Cooper.”

BEN ROCHFORD

Army Air Force World War II, Tech. Sgt.

European Theatre1942-1945

Ben Rochford, now deceased, was aboard a plane that was shot down over Berlin in 1944. He was captured and spent one year as a German Prisoner of War.

THOMAS A. HARMAN

Army Air Corp, World War II Cpl.

1945-1947

Thomas Harman, a Uniontown High School gradute, attended Army Basic Training at Sheppard Field in San Antonio, Texas.

A carpenter who had studied at Geiger Filed in Spokane, Wash. Harman went on to serve on a military base in Hawaii. There, while guarding Japanese prisoners of war, Harman tapped his carpentry trade and made furniture on the base.

Harmon is the recipient of the World War II Victory Medal.

ROBERT L. KEENER

US Army WWII Technician 4th Grade

1942-1946

A highly decorated soldier, Keener is the recipient of the Good Conduct Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal with two bronze stars and the American Campaign Medal.

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During his deployment to India and Burma Keener worked on the Ledo road. To aid in the work, elephants were used to move trees, make bridges and prepare the roadway for travel.